After last week (and last year) it was a given that I would go again to a Halloween event in the Trump Room. Organized by Me And My Friends the party today was called Noir Halloween with the motto “I’m your inner monster”. Again lots of people came costumed for Halloween, which is no surprise since the Tokyo party crowd loves to dress up for going out. So it wasn’t too hard to shoot some nice pictures of the friendly patrons. Enjoy!

A team of three smiley DJs at the turntables of the Trump Room.

Japanese girl dressed up as Marilyn Monroe for Halloween.

A group of partygoers hastily posing for their picture.

The second of two Japanese girls with matching Marilyn Monroe costumes.

Japanese girl in an old-school flight attendant's costume at the Noir Halloween party.

Japanese guy suited up and sticking out his tongue.

A Japanese girl going for the kawaii cute look at the Noir Halloween party.

Like last year, Tokyo’s party scene loves to celebrate Halloween as an opportunity to dress up in weird fashion or naughty costumes and dance the night away. Although this foreign holiday is not yet here, this Saturday was one of many pre-Halloween nightclub events at the Trump Room. Located in Shibuya, it is a small but nicely decorated club with three rooms on three floors.

The party was presented by bunny.×Tokyo cherry×Dead or Alive and called Mysterious Halloween Night – Tarot Fortune Teller, because it featured not only popular DJs from Tokyo and Nagoya, but also a small booth with a girl reading tarot cards for a measly ¥1000. However, I was more interested in the costumes and attires of my fellow partygoers and tried to capture the best of them. Sexy nurse outfits were rather popular this year, as were ballet costumes from the Black Swan movie, the usual Japanese cosplays and Western gothic/horror classics.

A leather-clad macho man and three Japanese ladies posing in the Trump Room.

Two beautiful Japanese girls in matching nurse costumes.

A blond Japanese girl wearing an elaborate Halloween costume.

Two other girls wearing nurse outfits at the Halloween party.

Japanese DJ Takeru with three female friends in the White Room.

A Japanese girl wearing a naughty Little Red Riding Hood costume.

Two Japanese girls cosplaying in black and white Black Swan costumes.

Popular DJ Takeru dancing in the Trump Room.

A dressed-up cute Japanese girl at the Mysterious Halloween Night event.

But first I want to show some pictures of the people attending such an Tokyo underground goth party. Unsurprisingly, many were dressed up in elaborate costumes as they are artists and DJs themselves (or just love the chance to wear a gothic cosplay).

Again I visited the “Machine Magic” (機械魔術) concert series at Urga in Shinjuku. As Nekoi-san from Psydoll is one of the organizers, I was happy to help my friend by taking pictures at this event. The other bands invited were The Royal Dead and PsychoDream.

The first performer of the evening was the duo The Royal Dead. Originally called Phantasmagoria, they are one of the longest-lived Japanese dark electro/goth bands of Tokyo/Saitama and are currently recording their new album.

Although Halloween is still two weeks away, Tokyo is gearing up for its Japanese take on this foreign holiday. Many shops, restaurants and public spaces are already decorated with the usual Halloween accessories based on US influences. Stripped of all its pseudo-Celtic and pagan traditions, Halloween is pretty much an excuse for fancy dress parties with a goth/horror theme.

On this Saturday there was one of these nightclub events. Called “bunny. × Tokyo cherry × Dead or Alive presents SPECIAL HALLOWEEN PARTY – CIRCUS OF TERROR” Tokyo’s fashion party scene gathered in the multi-story Trump Room in Shibuya to celebrate and check out each others’ dresses and cosplays. Popular DJs like 2BOY, MA5AKAZ, Death Is Not My Aim, smoooch!, Cherry Boys, DaF, RS, Da Monde, lilith (of Kawaii Tokyo), Dusty John Thomas, Make the Chaos Party, Lie…, Shilas and MA-C were performing in a pretty much sold out club, so taking photos in this crowded environment turned out to be harder than expected!

Tokyo’s electro crowd is one of the most dynamic and fashion-conscious party scenes I know of. Pretty much every event is under the unofficial motto “see and be seen” — the people often dress up in their most extravagant and stylish clothes to party. So I was quite happy to attend such an event after having missed so many this year. It was the Kawaii Tokyo party’s 2nd anniversary held at the Trump Room in Shibuya. I arrived rather late, so I did not manage to document all of the best unique styles the party-goers were wearing.

The evening was kicked off by Neo and MiN and their Gothic Fusion Belly Dance performance to Middle Eastern-inspired goth/industrial music. I had seen them the month before at Gothic Bar Heaven 25 where they had supported Ray Trak. This time they were alone on the stage.

The belly dancer Neo at the Gothic Bar Heaven 26 event.

The belly dancer Neo with MiN behind her.

Gothic Fusion Belly Dancer Neo with her long, flowing fans.

Neo and MiN waving their fans while dancing.

Gothic Fusion Belly Dance at Club Crawl by performer MiN.

Another shot of belly dancer Neo during her dance performance in Tokyo.

The first music act of Gothic Bar Heaven 26 was the Japanese industrial band Zwecklos. And it was actually their very first live performance — Zwecklos was formed in June 2010 by Takuya and Ageha.

Bass player and programmer Takuya of Zwecklos doing his thing.

Singer Ageha of the Japanese dark electro band Zwecklos.

For their very first time Zwecklos delivered a quite powerful performance.

Zwecklos' singer Ageha dancing at Club Crawl.

Another picture of the impressive show by Ageha of Zwecklos.

The singer Ageha was also singing some songs in German.

The second band was Custom Mary (カスタム・マリー). They played only electronic music with no live lyrics. Their performance largely relied on the dancer Mari, who delivered a stunning performance while wearing a cat mask.

Custom Mary's Mari ringing a small bell while composer and programmer Akira works in the back.

The last performer of the event was the show group 虚飾集団廻天百眼 (Kyoshoku Shūdan Kaiten Hyaku-me). They are a troupe of young theater actors and presented the play 「私は私として生まれ、私のまま死ぬんだ！！」 (“In the condition I was born I will die as well!”).

The performers of the 「私は私として生まれ、私のまま死ぬんだ！！」 play start their act.

A female member of the Japanese theater group Kaiten Hyakume.

Actress Tomoe Ōshima (大島朋恵) awakes from her transformation scene.

Note the demon blade and the monster's arm.

Actress Tomoe Ōshima (大島朋恵) suffering.

Fast and furious action dominated the later half of the show.

A short pause in a fight scene of 虚飾集団廻天百眼's performance.

Epilog of the story with all actors present on the stage.

After the play birthday boy Tetra was presented a watermelon with his portrait by his friends.

As always I also tried to document the Japanese goth scene a little bit, shooting party-goers, DJs and performers. These are the results, depicting the guys and gals of Tokyo’s dark underground…

Japanese DJ Mikan in the DJ booth at Club Crawl.

Japanese goth guy Itsuki relaxing between the performances.

A Japanese girl in white gothic lolita fashion.

Two male and one female guest of the goth party at Club Crawl.

Japanese goth DJ Tetra wearing an anarchy t-shirt while deejaying.

Ageha and another patron of the Gothic Bar Heaven 26 party.

The Japanese DJ Manik (HimemaniK) who invited me to this event.

Actress Mariko Akahi (紅日毬子) with red contact lenses.

Mariko and a friend posing early in the morning outside of Club Crawl in Shibuya.

Shingguapoura was just the singer Schizkkha (世都熾壟) singing to recorded gothic rock music. She used a scary plastic doll with bloody entrails as a puppet between her songs and gave a beautiful performance with singing and dancing.

Schizkkha of Shingguapoura was dressed in black latex clothing.

Singer Schizkkha of Shingguapoura during her performance.

Schizkkha of Shingguapoura playing with a rubber doll with trailing entrails.

Gothic singer Schizkkha of Shingguapoura live at Urga.

Shingguapoura's Schizkkha holding her hand-made rubber doll.

Schizkkha's rubber doll was hanging from a chain during her performance.

The next band was called Sredni Vashtar (スレドニ・ヴァシュター). They are a Japanese duo making powerful synthie/electro music with female lyrics. The performance of singer Haruki (華季) and musician Laddie M (螺泥M) was quite popular among the crowd and fun to watch.

The beginning of Sredni Vashtar's live gig at Urga.

Singer Haruki (ハルキ) of Sredni Vashtar with programmer Laddie M at the synthesizer.

Laddie M (螺泥M) of Sredni Vashtar was dancing most of the time when he was not working with his computer.

A close-up shot of Sredni Vashtar's singer Haruki (華季).

Haruki of Sredni Vashtar during their performance in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Another portrait of Haruki singing.

The final music group for the evening was the cyber gothic rock band Psydoll. As always, Nekoi, Ucchi and Uenoyama/Loveless delivered a tight performance, only hampered by the fact that Nekoi was still getting used to her new keyboard guitar (since her old one broke).

The Japanese cyberpunk band Psydoll performing at the Machine Magic event at Urga.